I’d heard about heating water over top of a candle for a long time, and I’d been casually curious about it, but my recent involvement with our WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Emergency Prep group seemed like a good time to try it myself.
Not coincidentally, the scenario we were focusing on the second week of January was LOSS OF POWER. As fortune would dictated, it happened to be our coldest week of the years with temperatures dipping to -40 Celcius, and we were feeling it. Church last week even got cancelled to prevent unnecessary exposure, it was a good week to stay home.
And with us trying to keep the house reasonably warm without straining the system with our electrical needs, it seemed like a perfect time. We lit a fire in the woodstove downstairs and enjoyed the coziness of that warmth for several days, burning up quite a lotta wood. And we had a brief concern that our hot water heater might be having issues, but it had a happy ending.
So the claim I saw was exactly this (see below). I recreated it as closely as I could, but think I had more water than the original test cases used. My smallest kitchen pot is 4 cups, so 4 cups of water was my test.
You can see the start of bubbles in the bottom and steam coming from the water. That’s pretty impressive for 4 cups of water over tea lights.
It took a lot longer than I expected, a couple of hours till it reached 197 degrees. But to be fair, 197 degrees is pretty hot, hot enough to heat some soup, and maybe to even cook some eggs. If you aren’t in a hurry that is.
I’ll be using this hack again in the future – even if just to show off to the grandkids. And its nice to know if we ever run out of power, that we can have hot water with little effort.
After I took the above video, I meant to blow the candles out but forgot. When I came back in about half an hour, I was surprised to see that it had reached a slow boil. I guess what they say about a watched pot not boiling is right. They’re so shy.
I think I’ll pick up another pack of tea lights when I see them. A good thing to have sitting in the linen closet for just such a time as this.
“Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without.”
For most of our married life – we’ve adhered to a continuous routine of fixing up our world as we could afford it. Our agreed upon routine has been one INDOOR project a year (usually done in the winter), and one OUTDOOR project a year (usually done in the summer). There’s never been a shortage of projects, and they move up and down the priority list according to need and affordability at the time.
This year our big indoor project was to refinish our dining room table. It had been moving up the list for a long time, well worn from 24 years of heavy use. Unfortunately, the time we chose ended up being the coldest weeks of the year – so opening the windows to get some air became a sketchy thing, but we had to a couple of times! The stain smell became very strong that we opened a few windows in -40C temperatures for a few hours to get rid of the worst of it, while Gramma Great watched tv in front of the woodstove downstairs.
As soon as the Christmas decorations were put away, we cleared the table, set in all four leaves and began a job we’d been putting off for years: that of refinishing our well worn oak table. We were nervous as heck which is why we procrastinated for a decade. But we’d collected advice and courage long enough – while our table continued to collect more scratches and worn areas – letting us know it needed a major face lift. Thank goodness it was only the top that needed attention.
Step 1 – Borrowing a friend’s super-duper sander/vacuum system, Dan sanded the top. That was the only area that needed refinishing. He did it in the house – right there in the dining area. We thought we’d need to hand plastic sheeting everywhere but as I said that sander was of the ‘super-duper’ variety, and it was fabulous.
Step 2 – We took a leaf to into a paint shop, trying to match the colour with stain. The leaf had the original colour still in the facing under the top. Step 3 – With the help and encouragement of a talented friend, Dan applied the stain. But the colour was toooooo ‘red’ for me. Argh. Step 4 – Back to the paint store to ‘brown up’ the stain colour. They did a great job. Step 5 – Dan applied another coat of stain but sadly, didn’t apply it evenly enough which resulted in some splotches. We tried to fix them up by applying another coat but that didn’t work. By this time we were into a week or working on it – around our regular working / living obligations. I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it. Argh again.
Step 6 – Re-sand the whole stupid thing and start over. As frustrating as that it, I have learned with many other projects over the years, sometimes that is the ONLY way – and it’s far better to concede sooner than later. Step 7 – Re-stain. But this time we did it together. Working quickly and efficiently together, we covered the table beautifully. Step 8 – Still, a few uneven spots. Our friend and neighbour came back to assess and advise us. Back to the paint store to buy a matching stain in a spray bottle. We lightly touched up the spots. Wow! Great stuff.
Step 9 – Applied the first coat of Varathane – with our friend. We let it dry, then I lightly buffed with fine steel wool. We applied another layer, and let it dry – then lightly buffed again with steel wool. One more coat, let it dry – then gently rubbed with a piece of brown paper to smooth out the finished job.
Step 10 – We brought out our well worn chairs and after rubbing with steel wool, I gently sprayed the seats with our matching stain. Let dry, then smoothed with the steel wool again and applied a coat of Varathane.
It was a happy day to let the whole project harden over night, then removes some leaves to clear out the kitchen area. I happily vacuumed well, handwashed the floor and tucked the chairs around.
Done. Two full weeks later! So happy we finally DID it, and now its behind us. I still have three more chairs to finish, but that’ll be a piece of cake in the next week or so.
Not looking forward to the first scratch, but I’m resigned to it happening. And I have full confidence that we’ll be able to touch up as needed with the tools and confidence that we now have at our finger tips.
